Lori Healey Rising Leader Award

2026 award jurors

• Lina Chiu

  

  Lina Chiu, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, NCARB is a Principal with LJC Design & Engineering. She is multi-disciplinary, leading both ground-up construction and interior build-out projects. Notable projects include the Chicago McDonald’s Corporate Headquarters, Block37, Marriott Marquis at McCormick Place and the Boston Consulting Group. Currently, Lina serves as the owner’s consultant for the Obama Presidential Center, heading up design implementation for the 19-acre campus and guiding day-to-day decision-making to advance the project toward opening. 

  Her close relationships with owners and ability to deliver services effectively have gained her a well-deserved reputation as a champion for clients from the beginning to the end of a project. In addition to leading project delivery, Lina is LJC’s Firmwide Studio + Talent leader, overseeing 200+ professionals across eight studios in five offices.

  Lina’s achievements are far-reaching, and her commitment to impacting communities extends beyond her daily work in the studio. She serves on the Board of Governors for First Tee–Greater Chicago, on the Chicago Architecture Center Board of Trustees, and on the Alumni Council for the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. She is a Habitat for Humanity Women Build team leader and an active member of Professional Women in Construction and AIA Chicago.  

  Lina has also garnered many awards for her work on projects that have been honored by Chicago Building Congress, Interior Design Magazine, IIDA, American Institute of Architects and Interior Design Magazine. She was recently honored as Woman of the Year in 2023 by the Illinois Real Estate Journal.

• Katherine Darnstadt

  

  Katherine Darnstadt, AIA, NOMA, LEED AP is the founder of Latent, an architecture and urbanism firm exploring the influence of design as small or as large as the context allows in the search of social and spatial justice. Since founding Latent in 2010, Katherine and her firm have pursued projects at the bench, building, and block scale across Chicago and the Midwest. They have prototyped new urban design systems to advance urban food access with Forty Acres Fresh Market, supported over 200 small businesses through the Boombox micro retail popup program, designed new community centers with Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago, designed new affordable housing as part of two INVEST South/West teams, and created community design frameworks as a cofounder of the nonprofit Design Trust Chicago.

  Darnstadt and Latent have been published, exhibited and featured widely, most recently as one of The Architectural League of New York’s Emerging Voices, as part of the RIBA 100 Women Architects publication, and though inclusion on the Best of Practice for Small Firms in the Midwest honor roll by Architect’s Newspaper. Katherine has previously taught at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Northwestern University.

• Annabell Ren

  

  Annabell Ren, AIA is the cofounder and principal at Converge Architecture, where she leads community-based projects with a focus on the integration of urban environments and community engaged planning processes. The firm has won design excellence commendations from AIA Chicago, and has assisted a client in successfully securing a Chicago Prize from the Pritzker Traubert Foundation.

  Annabell has a passion for understanding and improving communities and places. In addition to managing her own studio, she is an adjunct professor at the IIT College of Architecture, where she serves on the school’s community engagement council, and also co-chairs the Associate Board of the Chinese American Service League.

  Annabell holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Illinois Institute of Technology and a Master degree of Urban Design from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.